I have not written about Dickinson, North Dakota for a month.  This is the longest that I have gone in the past five years without writing anything.  This has been one of the worst months of my life.  Most of my problems involved being sick, my Siamese cat, going back to Idaho to work on my house, and thefts where I live in downtown Dickinson.

Everything that went wrong for me, was not nearly as important or consequential as the thefts of my property in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota.  The last blog post that I wrote on May 27 titled “Early Morning Thefts In Downtown Dickinson, North Dakota”, turned out to be just the beginning.

On the morning of May 27, I found my white color Mongoose mountain bicycle hanging from it’s bicycle cable lock, with the front wheel undone, hanging off the back of my truck.  I took Dickinson Police Officer Langler’s advice when he came to take a report, to purchase a security camera.

On the morning of June 6, I found that my white color Mongoose mountain bicycle was gone.  The surveillance video showed two adults ride up on black BMX bicylces, cut through the bicycle cable lock, and ride off on my bicycle at 2:21 a.m.  Dickinson Police Officer Kinto took a report on this theft.

On the morning of June 15, a neighbor found the bicycle cable lock cut through on my older red color Mongoose mountain bicycle parked in the bicycle rack.  The surveillance video showed an adult walk up to this bicycle and crouch down beside it at 2:31 a.m.  Dickinson Police Officer Bates took a report on this attempted theft where the bicycle cable lock was cut through.

On the evening of June 25 at 7:20 p.m., my neighbors observed an adult male taking pictures of what was in the back of my truck using his phone, apparently the set of four truck tires.  The Dickinson Police were not very helpful at first when I was trying to explain this to them, they were especially not helpful when they later tasered this individual 100 feet from my truck when he was being combative and non-compliant with them, in regards to a dispute.

I tried to explain about the attempted theft and successful theft of my property on May 27, June 6, June 15, and at 7:20 p.m. this evening by this individual now in their custody in the back of their patrol vehicle to several Dickinson Police Officers standing there, but they didn’t want to hear about it, except for Officer Langler, who unfortunately had to leave on another call.  I couldn’t believe it, I thought that I would have a very difficult time catching this person, and now that the Police had him in custody in their patrol vehicle, they didn’t want to hear about it.

The following morning, June 26, I was able to give a written statement and three surveillance videos to Dickinson Police Sergeant Moser who was in charge of the day shift, in the hope that the Dickinson Police Department could use all of this information with the dates, times, and videos to make some progress in theft investigations in Dickinson.

Dickinson Police Officers Langler, Kinto, Bates, and Moser were professional and they appeared to have a genuine interest in stopping the thefts in downtown Dickinson.  But something is wrong beyond these specific instances of theft and attempted theft where I live in downtown Dickinson, something is wrong with the Mayor Scott Decker, the Police Chief Dusty Dassinger, the Judges, the City of Dickinson Commissioners, the long-time local residents, and the out of state workers in Dickinson.

I have lived in small towns, college towns, oil field towns, medium-sized towns, and big cities like Tampa, Phoenix, and Fort Worth.  Dickinson has by far the worst theft and drug crime, and it only has a population of 25,000 people.

What I believe is the deliberate under-reporting of crime in Dickinson, is doing way more harm than good.  If crime is really bad and out of control, let the people know, let the Mayor know, let the City Commissioners know, so that additional officers or detectives can be hired, or even ask for assistance from the State Police.

There seems to be some kind of unwritten understanding between Police Chief Dusty Dassinger, the Judges, and the thieves and drug addicts in Dickinson, that the theft of property is not that bad, drug activity is not that bad, as long as you don’t do anything violent, you’re O.K.

The behind the scenes attitude of Mayor Scott Decker, Police Chief Dusty Dassinger, the City of Dickinson Commissioners, and the Judges, that the city is just going to have to live with theft and drug crime, there isn’t much that you can do about it, let’s try to minimize the reporting of crime in Dickinson, we aren’t going to hire more Police Officers, let’s just try to make it through these post oil boom years, and all of this will die off, ……..this attitude of allowing it, permitting it, and ignoring it is making Dickinson have the worst crime of anywhere I have ever lived in my life.